Money has always been a big part of politics, and campaign finance laws have been put in place to curb potential corruption. But the Supreme Court continues to rule on parts of campaign finance laws- most recently allowing individuals to give money to more campaigns in the case McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission. Is this one more way to allow big money into politics, or a protection of free speech?

Campaign contributions are protected as free speech under the First Amendment, but with restrictions in order to prevent corruption. Since 1976 in Buckley v. Valeo, the Court has ruled that campaign contribution limits can be enforced as “primary weapons against the reality or appearance of improper influence stemming from the dependence of candidates on large campaign contributions.” Basically, it’s fine to limit contributions from individuals to avoid corruption. And understandably so- it isn’t unreasonable to think donating huge sums of money from an individual to a campaign could lead to some kind of favoritism toward that person.

So to combat that potential, the government set a cap for the amount of money an individual can contribute to campaigns, and it’s been like this since 1976. Currently, that limit is $5,200 to each campaign over a two-year period. As time has gone on, the courts have continued to rule more on the side of campaign contributions as free speech, making those laws less restrictive, and continuing to hold them as protected free speech under the First Amendment.

One of the most recent examples was in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, where the Court ruled restrictions on how much money unions and corporations could donate weren’t legal. Liberals saw this as a way to equate corporations to people, and conservatives saw it as an expansion of First Amendment rights.

So McCutcheon tackled another part of the campaign finance puzzle: caps on individual donations… kind of.

Prior to this ruling, there was a limit on how much money an individual could donate to one campaign, as well as a cap on how much an individual could donate to campaigns total. Individuals could give up to $5,200 to any one candidate, but no more than $123,200 total during a two-year election cycle. And of that $123,200, only $48,600 could go to individual campaigns. The Supreme Court held on Wednesday that that total limit, the $123,200, was unconstitutional, while the caps on donations to individual campaigns still stand.

So, what does this mean in practice? Basically, wealthy people can give money to more candidates… but they can’t give more money to one candidate. Again, liberals have gotten upset-worried that increasing the amount of money individuals can donate to campaigns will somehow unhinge a balance of power, or make a system already centered on money even more uneven. But to be frank- this decision doesn’t change a whole lot of anything, and it’s constitutionally sound.

If the goal of campaign finance limits is to combat corruption (legitimate corruption, not just speculative or hypothetical corruption), then giving a limited amount of money to a few more candidates really isn’t a huge problem.  Individuals won’t be able to wield more influence over one candidate because to individual caps are still in place.

Still, there is concern that this ruling only helps the wealthy, as they’re the only ones who would be able to give this much money to campaigns in the first place. But more important than worrying about rich people giving money to campaigns is worrying about what the First Amendment protects. The First Amendment, time and again, has protected campaign contributions as free speech. Arbitrary limits on one kind of free speech are no better than arbitrary limits on another.

Though it’s easy to get caught up in thinking allowing the wealthy to give more money to a campaign isn’t fair, the McCutcheon decision by the Supreme Court upholds rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. The only restrictions the courts should impose on campaign limits are ones that protect against corruption and limiting the amount of campaigns individuals can donate to do not protect against corruption.

[Supreme Court] [Oyez] [Washington Times] [Citizens United]

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Molly Hogan (@molly_hogan13)

Featured Image Courtesy of [Flickr/Tracy Olson]

Molly Hogan

Molly Hogan is a student at The George Washington University and formerly an intern at Law Street Media. Contact Molly at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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